The Debt Crisis Throwing Czechs Into Poverty

An interview with investigative journalist Saša Uhlová

26 April 2023

Czechs are facing increased economic pressures from lingering external factors like the COVID-19 pandemic and the war in Ukraine, but there are persistent domestic practices which continue to exacerbate the debt situation for many in the middle class, threatening them with poverty.

Jan Čulík, editor-in-chief of Britské listy website and Senior Lecturer in Czech Studies at the University of Glasow, speaks with Saša Uhlová, an acclaimed Czech journalist covering poverty in Czechia as well as in other EU countries.

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Uhlová’s latest reporting includes an undercover investigation as a seasonal worker in Germany to report on the conditions of workers hired mostly from Poland. Previously she exposed working conditions inside Agrofert’s food processing plants in Czechia and was one of the first reporters to cover the scope of the consumer debt crisis in Czechia, something she points out has not diminished since the years of her reporting. As she discusses in this interview, the situation is actually on the trajectory of worsening with the rising living costs.

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Jan Čulík

Jan Čulík is editor-in-chief of the Britské listy website and a Senior Lecturer in Czech Studies at the University of Glasgow in Scotland. He teaches Czech literature, history, media and film there.

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